Punjab Assembly publishes four-year performance report

Provincial house 148 bills out of the162 introduced from June 2013 to May 2017

LAHORE: As the assemblies in Pakistan are going to complete their mandatory tenures of five years by the end of next month, the Punjab Assembly has issued its report of last four years to apprise the voters what their lawmakers have done for them.

The report published on Monday said the provincial assembly passed 148 bills from June 2013 to May 2017.

Out of the total 162 bills introduced, 148 were passed in the PA that is the largest assembly of Pakistan with 369 members, it said.

The breakdown further shows that 31 bills were passed in the first parliamentary year while 37, 46 and 34 bills were adopted during the second, third and fourth parliamentary year, respectively. The issuance of the said report is the project funded by the European Union (EU) through its initiative ‘Strengthening Subai Assemblies Pakistan’.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan said at the launch event the report was first of its kind ever published to recount four-year performance of the provincial assembly.



This was done because the elected house of Punjab was the largest assembly of the country and therefore people had more expectations associated with this house, he added.

“As 2018 is the year of election and it is the right of the people of Punjab to know what their elected representatives have done for them to whom they have sent to the assembly. This report will equally help the public, researchers and scholars as it has detailed performance charts of the last four years,” the speaker said.

As many as 4,631 starred questions and 1,451 unstarred questions were answered in the house during the last four years. The breakdown shows that 1,210 starred questions were answered during the first parliamentary year while 1,263, 1,088 and 1,070 starred questions were answered in the second, third and fourth parliamentary year, respectively.

Not a single unstarred question was answered in the first parliamentary year while 234, 561 and 656 unstarred questions were provided answers during the second, third and fourth year, respectively.

A member may raise a matter of public importance regarding the law and order situation while submitting a call-attention notice that was first introduced in the Punjab Assembly in the year 1991. The current government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) answered 148 call-attention notices during the last four years.



As many as 1,720 adjournment motions and 118 privilege motions were adopted by the house in the last four years, while 189 resolutions of the public interest were passed by the Punjab Assembly during this period.

Donna Bugby Smith, the team leader of the project Strengthening Subai Assemblies Pakistan, said this report would highlight the transparency and accountability of the parliamentarians of the largest assembly of Pakistan.

“Punjab is my second home and it is really an honour working with the elected assembly of this province,” said Smith, who was the member of the EU delegation that also contributed in publishing the report.